2nd Wave of Checks Enroute to Victims

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A second wave of checks to victims of a deadly meningitis outbreak has begun to arrive and for some, at least, it includes an unexpected bonus.
The checks coming from a more than $150 million settlement fund are going to lawyers representing victims and survivors of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that sickened 778 patients in more than 20 states, killing at least 76 of them.
Interviews with lawyers and victims or survivors of victims show the checks that began arriving late last week are between 17 and 20 percent higher than expected. Previously victims had been told that the second payments would be the same or less than the first payments, which went out earlier this year.
The timing of the payments from the settlement fund are in line with a recent report the administrator had filed with Senior U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel. Lynne Riley, the trustee, told the court the second wave of payments would be going out by the end of summer.
The notices being sent also indicate that victims may get yet a third payment, but those checks may not be issued for three to four years. The third payment would come from tax refunds expected by the former owners of the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the deadly outbreak.
An attorney representing Riley told Zobel the delay was necessary because the IRS  could reverse itself and recoup the refunds.
The settlement fund was created in the bankruptcy of NECC. It includes payments from the owners of the now defunct company and related parties, including insurance carriers.
The payments from the national settlement fund are separate from payments some victims will or have already received from health care providers who purchased steroids from NECC.  Those include a settlement with the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Second payments from that Tennessee settlement have yet to be made. Initial payments from the fund, estimated at more than $20 million, came last month.
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